Difference between ranking Short and Long Tail Keywords

[EugeneHill]

Short tail keywords means keywords that are short in length - usually not more than 3 word. These are generally generic keywords which means that they are not specific. Unspecificity results in large search volumes for these keywords.

On the other hand, the long tail keywords are those which have more than 3 words and are more often specific, and hence this results in narrowing of the search volume.

E.g Short tail keyword: Engineering colleges (Search Volume: say 15,000 per month)
Long tail Keyword: Engineering colleges in Glassgow (Search Volume: say 1,000 per month)

So here you see that it is easier to do SEO of long tail keywords as the search volume is less as compared their counterpart short tails.

[richardmsmith]

both are the keyword phrases but in between small difference.
Short tail keywords are 3 words or less than 3 words.
Short tail keywords are also known as “head terms”
Long tail keywords however are a little different compared to short tail keywords. Long tail words are more than 3 words. They are definitely a lot more targeted and not as broad. You may not bring in as much search traffic from long tail keywords but the traffic you do bring in is the kind you are looking for.

[Stucorner]

Short tail keyword consist of 1-2 words, these are also called search phrases, while long tail keywords are keyword phrases consisting 3-5 words.

Regards,
Stucorner